[Story]: (9.2/10)
Code Geass takes place in an alternate modern day timeline where the world is split between three superpowers: The Holy Britannian Empire, The Chinese Federation, and the European Union. On August 10, 2010, the Holy Britannian Empire set its sight to Japan and invaded Japan within one month with their use of new mobile humanoid armor vehicles dubbed Knightmare Frames. Japan has been stripped of its right and identity, now re-named by the Britannians "Area 11".
The story, in my opinion, is magnificent. Well, it could have been a perfect masterpiece if it wasn't for the last few episodes where they decided to cram in more plot twists and left the viewers with more plot holes that will most likely be answered in the second season and of course, the season finale cliffhanger. I didn't see it as a bad thing but I also didn't see it as a good thing either. I'm the kind of guy who watches a show and expects everything to be answered in the season alone. This is why I don't like plot holes and season finale cliffhangers. Anyways, This are literally the only flaws I found within Code Geass. Everything else is perfect.
Back to the story, I love it. I love how the conflicts unravel between the superpower countries, I just love the strategies that are being planned by the characters and see them play out, and etc.
The politics in the show are almost realistic and they've done a great job of displaying the character's tactics. This clearly shows that the staff of Code Geass knew their politics very well and they also knew how leadership situation plays out. The show also has a lot of plot twists and most of them are executed perfectly. Some of them are minor plot twists and most of them are shocking plot twists that will leave you at awe and will affect the overall plot. Man, the plot twists are ready to bite's Lelouch's ass when it's needed to.
The pacing is perfect. It doesn't move too fast and it doesn't move too slow either. It explains the situation that's going on around and if it leaves a few plot holes, the show will answer it in the later episodes.
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[Art/Animation]: (8/10)
The Animation for it's time is great. When was this show made? 2006? 2007? Whatever, the animation looks beautiful, the environment looks great for its time and the mecha's design are gorgeous. Especially the Lancelot and the Guren Mark II. You know, for a 2006 anime, the mecha fighting scenes are very fluid. There's no still frames and everything is flowing smoothly. However, the biggest issue I have in terms of CG's animation is the character design. The characters tend to be inhumanly tall, inhumanly slender, and inhumanly pretty, like they took an instant-growth pill because they were a bunch of elves in their previous lives or something. I got used to the character designs after 5 episodes but I still get bothered by it from time to time. For the love of god, I hope that CLAMP doesn't do the character design for the next season.
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[Sound]: (8/10)
The soundtrack, in my opinion, is great. The background theme that plays during the battle scenes are awesome and it fits so well. There is one issue though. The music used in dramatic scenes. I'm probably the only one thinking that here but it doesn't fit. Just play some goddamn theme instead of some guy singing in the background which felt out of place. There are 3 OP theme songs and 2 ED theme songs.
The 1st OP is "COLORS" by FLOW, the 2nd OP is "Kaidoku Funou" by Jinn and the 3rd OP is "Hitomi no Tsubasa" by Access. My opinions on the OP theme songs? The 1st OP is one of the best opening soundtrack I've ever heard. The 2nd OP is the worst opening soundtrack I've ever heard. I just skipped the 2nd opening before they switched to the 3rd opening which is a lot better than the 2nd opening. Why couldn't the 3rd opening be the 2nd opening? The singer in the 2nd opening is annoying as hell. Even Justin Bieber is better than Jinn. Now my opinions on the ED theme songs. The 1st ED theme song is great and the 2nd ED theme song is, once again, sung by an annoying singer who can't even sing.
I watched the show in English Dub so I'm going to review the English VA. In my opinion, the English Voices fits the show very well. I mean, why would a Britannian speak perfect Japanese? Why is one of the Chinese Federation members speaking perfect Japanese? Anyways, most of them did a great job except Suzaku's VA. He sounds somewhat monotonic in some scenes.
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[Characters]: (10/10)
Easily a perfect score from me. Why? Because most of the characters are well written, fully developed, and most of them are Three.Fucking.Dimensional. Take notes, future potential writers. CG shows that it's not hard to give your character some life, give him/her some goddamn personality (looking at you Touma), make him/her not a useless character, and etc. Now, the actual character's review.
Lelouch Lamperouge or you can call him Lelouch vi Britannia which I highly prefer calling, is the main protagonist of the show and a student of the Ashford Academy High School. One day, he got a mysterious ability called "Geass" from a girl named C2 which allows him to command other people whatever he wants. However, there are restrictions and side effects. Lelouch just became one my new favorite characters and currently one of the best protagonist I have ever seen. Why? Because he's strategically smart, his plans are not dumb and is well thought out, he has flaws just like the rest of the human beings, he doesn't whine when his plans don't go to plan, he's a well developed and a three dimensional main protagonist, and I can literally list more but this is getting way too long.
C.C or what the Eng. Dub calls her, C2 which I also highly prefer calling her, is a mysterious girl who gave Lelouch the "Geass" and allied up with him to protect his life. C2 is now also one of my new favorite characters because she's a developed character, she has a personality, she's not annoying and she likes eating huge amounts of pizza.
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[Enjoyment]: (10/10)
Even though I hate mechas, I easily enjoyed Code Geass as a whole because of the engaging and well thought out story, likable characters, and it balances dialogues and action which prevented me from getting bored.
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[OVERALL]: (9.5/10)
Code Geass is one of the best shows I've seen yet. Besides the plot holes and the season finale cliffhanger, I seriously love the story, the politics behind the show, Lelouch, and the action scenes doesn't drag out too long instead of some random explosions with no meaning behind it. This is now going to my Top 10 Favorite Animes of all time. If you're not a fan of mechas, like me, then I still recommend that you watch this show. You seriously will not regret it.
Pros:
+Great Story
+Great and Beautiful Animation
+Great Soundtrack
+Fully developed and well written characters
+Balances out dialogue and action scenes
+Cliffhangers did their job (Except the season finale cliffhanger)
+Perfect plot twists
+Lelouch is one of the best protagonists I have seen yet.
+Pizza Hut logos around the show. A nice little touch up
Cons:
-Character designs looks atrocious
-Out-of-place dramatic theme and songs
-Season finale cliffhanger
-Few fanservice
